Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

In his opening remarks, the Taoiseach mentioned COVAX and support for that endeavour, which was very disappointing. COVAX does not increase the production of vaccines. We know that now because we are almost two years into this debate. COVAX is not working. It does not add to know-how in vaccine production. It is an extremely limited undertaking because it only involves a secure supply that is possible only through the purchase of vaccines on the open market. It is a laissez-faire approach when what we need is a hands-on approach across the board. COVAX relies on the open market and increases competition with the same rich countries that provide the funding for COVAX. It means that the countries we are hoping to support and to develop their vaccine output must now compete with the same rich countries they are seeking support from. It is illogical.

Fewer than 6% of people in African states had been vaccinated against coronavirus by late October. Global solidarity has been ineffective. COVAX has so far only shipped approximately 400 million vaccine doses globally, compared to its initial target that envisaged the delivery of 1.9 billion doses in 2021. COVAX is failing and I cannot reiterate this point strongly enough. Donations from richer countries are also failing to materialise. As of late October, developed countries had delivered only 43 million doses of vaccines, from pledges that had been made to donate approximately 400 million doses overall. Even that would still be far below what is needed. After one year of forecasting global vaccination timelines, our latest projections are the starkest of all. Our data show that most countries will have vaccinated the bulk of their populations either this year or not earlier than 2023. There is no middle ground and it is really a case of vaccinating people now or probably never. This shows how deeply unequal access to vaccines has become between richer and poorer countries. The data I refer to are contained in a report authored by Agathe Demarais, global forecasting director with the Economist Intelligence Unit, EIU.

If we cannot appeal to the sense of collectivism on which the EU was supposedly founded or to decency regarding vaccine equity, then surely we can appeal to our sense of self-preservation. If we do not help the developing countries with their vaccination programmes, and I mean really help them, instead of this hands-off,laissez-faire, let-the-market-help approach, through getting to grips with the production of vaccines via a waiver of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, TRIPS, and other mechanisms, then we will all be at risk. The variants that have emerged during the last year have stemmed from countries with low rates of vaccination. That is just a fact. We must get real and get serious about this. I am bewildered that the Taoiseach still comes in here and again mentions COVAX almost two years into a global pandemic. I remember when President Joe Biden intimated some months ago that the United States was going to support a waiver of the TRIPS Agreement. Very quickly thereafter, the Taoiseach came in and said that we might support such a waiver too. We cannot be subservient on this point and a little bit of courage is required.

I turn briefly to address what is happening on the EU's border with Belarus and some of the responses in that regard. It is clear that Alexander Lukashenko is weaponising human beings for his own purposes. Poland's response is no more decent in deploying 20,000 border police officers, firing water cannon and tear gas at asylum seekers, reinforcing its border fence and blocking access for journalists and aid organisations. The root cause of this weaponising of people is the fear that has emerged in the EU since about 2015 and Brexit concerning the migration of people. This fear has been whipped up by elites in the Tory party in the UK and of the right wing. They have tried to create a scapegoat by saying that these people over there, who are fleeing starvation, poverty and the danger of being killed in their homes by bombs made in America, are the real source of concern and fear.

We have weaponised those asylum seekers because of a fear of migration. That fear has loomed over and dominated migration policies, which have included the deployment of illegal push-back practices at the external borders of the EU, the towing back of migrants in the boats in which they arrived, the rounding up of refugees on land and forcing them back into the sea and informal detentions. The Polish Government has long been implementing a strict immigration agenda and has been closing its borders in breach of EU law. In doing so, Poland has defied calls for the humane treatment of asylum seekers. Poland is no exception in that regard. Deals done by the EU with non-EU countries have set a precedent for this. For example, to secure the EU's deal with Turkey in 2016, member states turned a blind eye to that country's human rights' violations in return for Turkey stemming the arrival of refugees to Greek islands. By effectively paying Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to keep migrants out, it was the EU that first introduced refugees into foreign policy as bargaining chips.

Questionable migration deals and anti-immigration messaging not only undermine the right to asylum, but also threaten the very foundation of the European project. I could point to any number of other examples, but time is short. Essentially, I am asking for us to show a bit of decency concerning a waiver of the TRIPS Agreement and stopping weaponising people and using them as political pawns. If the Irish State could stand for those aspects, that would respect our own history of being people who migrated.

See this speech in context